Tuesday, 12 January 2016

In his annual letter Ancestry's CEO Tim Sullivan points out that the company lived up to the promises made a year ago to deliver searchable images of US probate records and wills and, Mexico Civil Birth, Marriage and Death records from 1860.
The letter also boasts of "double digit revenue growth", "a net new subscriber base of 150,000" and 1.4 million genotyped members.

What's coming? A section "The Year Ahead" makes no specific promises. Earlier the letter refers to "a new year full of undiscovered opportunities" suggesting nothing specific by way of major new databases. That's likely why the letter reads like vacuous hype.

There is mention of "We're on our way to digitizing more than 80 U.S. newspapers, adding 100-plus million full-page newspaper images, fully indexed and searchable" but it's not clear if those will be added to Ancestry or newspapers.com.

Nothing is mentioned for those of us outside the US. The days of specific promises, such as those for 2010, are gone.

There will also be more Ancestry TV advertising and a promise of more staff.